Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

My friend and go-to director/collaborator Ron once gave me this fantastic advice after a rehearsal in which I was pushing, “acting”, trying to do too much… “You don’t have to land a 747 on every line. Sometimes a line is just a line.” He’s right. If it’s good writing, we in the audience will feelContinue reading “Landing 747’s”

“Hamlet likely marks the first time that Stanislavski put together several key concepts of the “system.” Having already realized that a script could be divided into bits and that characters had a supertask, a sverkhzadacha, he next realized that each character’s bit had its own zadacha: a little step taken, often unsuccessfully, toward the character’sContinue reading “Decide, Do, Feel”

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.” -Archilochus 99 percent is training. (Or process.) 1 percent is performing. Find a way to love the training. Otherwise, plan for it not to go as well as you hoped. P.S. – The best training montage of allContinue reading “Training”

“There is one river of truth, which receives tributaries from every side.“ -Clement Of Alexandria “There’s no disappointment in memory, and one’s exaggerations are always on the good side.“ -George Eliot, novel Daniel Deronda I know the truth lies in betweenThe first and the fortieth drink -Tori Amos, song “Concertina” “Be tolerant with others andContinue reading “Somewhere In The Middle”

“Our job is to make manifest the story, to be it. In a sense, the theatre is such a big star itself, bigger than any Shakespearean actor I could hire, that we should take the opportunity to fill it with voice and verse and movement, not interpretation.” -Mark Rylance Great parts make great actors. NotContinue reading “Great Parts”

Spec script: An original screenplay written without prior attachment or deal with an executive or studio. As this article attests, it took producer Allan Scott over thirty years to bring Walter Tevis’ novel to life. A producer should be judged by two things: their taste and their tenacity. You say this is your passion project?Continue reading “On Spec”

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”Continue reading “Time To Make Some Art”

And I listen for the voice inside my headNothin’, I’ll do this one myself -“State Of Love And Trust”, song by Pearl Jam “Who will help me bake the bread?” “Not I,” said the dog. “Not I,” said the pig. “Not I,” said the cow. “Well then, I will bake the bread myself.” And sheContinue reading “By Myself”

“Always leave them wanting more.” – P.T. Barnum “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” -Mark Twain No one will ever be mad at you if your art is too short. Assuming it’s good, the worst you’ll get is “I wish it were longer.” IContinue reading “Too Short”

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations A good producer anticipates problems before they arise. A good producer creates conditions so that the fewest possible problems will arise. A good producer solves problems when they do arise. A good producer realizes that the problems areContinue reading “No Problemo”